This invention relates generally to a composing machine, and more particularly concerns the display and reproduction system thereof.
In a composing machine, an original document is disposed on a support and illuminated so that a light image thereof may be readily displayed upon a viewing screen. Generally, position indicia are also reproduced on the viewing screen. This enables the size and location of the displayed image to be varied. When the position and size of the displayed image have been adjusted to provide the required information on the viewing screen, the operator may depress the appropriate button and reproduce the selected portions of the original document. This is accomplished frequently by projecting the selected portions of the light image onto a sensitized surface. Thus, only the selected portions of the original document are reproduced thereon. In order to achieve the foregoing, it is necessary to mask selected portions of the original document so that only the desired portions thereof are reproduced.
By way of example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,732,009 issued to Callum in 1973 discloses a photocomposing machine for use in preparing printing plates. In a machine of this type, the text is prepared on a master sheet which is mounted on a carrier. The carrier has the printed material desired to be reproduced correctly positioned thereon as it passes through the machine. A masking mechanism is provided to eliminate selected portions of the original document from the copy. A control system regulates the drive mechanism so that the carrier, textural material and masks move in synchronism with one another.
In various industries, it is common to compose a page of material by pasting together separate items of prepared text. The pasted-up page is then used as a starting point for making a corresponding printing plate by photographic and photoetching techniques. A layout department is required to allocate space on the page to each particular item thereof. Conventionally, the prepared copy is pasted onto an allocated section of a particular page. Rather than accomplishing the layout process manually, a computer may be employed to store layout information for each page. The material, including the art work, is scanned to provide numerical data necessary for controlling a reproducing machine. The textural material is edited on an editing terminal and then stored with or without the reproducing instructions in the computer. Each item to be included on the page is identified and the computer is instructed as to where each item is to be positioned thereon. The foregoing is described in U.S. Pat. No. Re. 27,974, issued to Kolb in 1974. The system disclosed therein, employs a laser to read the material. Electronics, actuated by the laser beam and reflected from the material, provide the requisite information to the computer. Other systems for producing illustrated texts are also basically composing types of machines. Machines of this type may employ cathode ray tubes. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,796,487, issued to Lemelson in 1975, describes a cathode ray tube system used to compose and fill out forms with variable data.
In general, a composing machine accepts inputs or groups of information from different sources. The information is arranged and integrated in reference and registration with one another according to an operator preference. This forms a composed or composite output suitable for input to a reproduction machine. The machine may have the capability of editing and justifying as well as grouping and intermixing information. However, the foregoing is extremely complex and a basic composing machine should provide an acceptance of hard document originals of the type commonly inputed to a copying machine, e.g., written documents such as books, paste-ups, etc. The machine should be capable of arranging the information in mutually perpendicular directions as well as being able to rotate the information. In addition, the machine should provide the capability of being able to act upon the entire or selected portions of each document being processed. Moreover, magnification and minification of the information either in a continuous fashion or in discrete steps should be provided. The information should be able to be registered in a variety of ways so that different groups of information may be formed from the same input information. Functionally, the information should be capable of being color highlighted. Half-tone and solid area output information should be provided. A machine with these capabilities is readily operable and provides good quality, hard copy outputs suitable for input to present and forseeable high speed duplicating and copying machines.
Accordingly, it is a primary object of the present invention to provide a basic composing machine arranged to form composite original documents from selected information contained in a plurality of input original documents.